Method for connecting to a wireless internet service

ABSTRACT

In a wireless data communication network, a mobile terminal is reconnected to a contents provider, when a connection established between the mobile terminal and the contents provider is interrupted or after a completion of the downloading of contents, by using return address information and contents address information including addresses of the contents provider and a web page including information relating to the downloaded contents, respectively. A WML (wireless markup language) script including the contents address information and the return address information is provided to the mobile terminal before initiating the downloading of the contents. In this way, the mobile terminal can easily be reconnected to the contents provider when the connection established between the mobile terminal and the contents provider is interrupted due to network congestion or the mobile terminal leaving the service coverage area.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method for connecting a mobileterminal to a wireless Internet service; and, more particularly, to amethod for reconnecting a mobile terminal to a wireless Internetservice, when a connection established between the mobile terminal and aservice provider is interrupted or after a completion of a downloadingof contents, by providing in advance return address information andcontents address information including internet addresses of the serviceprovider and a web page containing information on the downloadedcontents, respectively.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Users of a mobile telecommunications service can download a variety ofmultimedia contents from a contents provider through a wireless datanetwork, and such trend for a wireless multimedia service is expected toincrease continuously. The multimedia contents, which are downloadablethrough a wireless data network, include, e.g., advertisement charactermessages, news, information on stock market, materials for students,real-time audio and video streaming data, and the like.

As a mobile terminal for downloading such multimedia data through awireless data network, a third-generation mobile communicationsterminal, i.e., an IMT-2000 terminal, which includes a WAP (wirelessapplication protocol) browser and a VOD (video on demand) player fordownloading and playing multimedia contents, has been introduced.

While a conventional wireless data network is capable of transmittingdata such as character messages at a transmission rate of several tensof Kbps, a high-speed wireless data network is now used in providingmultimedia contents to users at a transmission rate of several hundredsof Kbps to several Mbps.

However, in the high-speed wireless data network, a connectionestablished between a mobile terminal and a contents provider may beinterrupted due to a network congestion caused by an instantaneous surgeof requests for connection thereto or the mobile terminal leaving theservice coverage area. Accordingly, in such cases, there is a need for amethod for the user of the wireless data network to be easilyreconnected to the contents provider.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide amethod for reconnecting a mobile terminal to a wireless Internet serviceprovider, when a connection established between the mobile terminal andthe service provider is interrupted, by providing in advance returnaddress information including an Internet address of the serviceprovider.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method forreconnecting a mobile terminal to a wireless Internet service provider,when a connection established between the mobile terminal and theservice provider is interrupted or after a completion of a downloadingof contents, by providing in advance return address information and/orcontents address information including internet addresses of the serviceprovider and a web page containing information on the downloadedcontents, respectively.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention,there is provided a method for connecting a mobile terminal to acontents provider having a plurality of multimedia contents through awireless data communication network, comprising the steps of: (a)receiving data including a contents address and return addressinformation upon one of the contents being selected by the user of themobile terminal; (b) connecting to the contents provider by using thecontents address; (c) checking whether the connection establishedbetween the mobile terminal and the contents provider is interruptedwhile the selected contents being downloaded from the contents provider;and (d) reconnecting the mobile terminal to the contents provider byusing the return address information, if the connection is foundinterrupted in step (c).

In accordance with another preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, there is provided a method for connecting a mobile terminalto a contents provider having a plurality of multimedia contents througha wireless data communication network, comprising the steps of: (a)receiving data including a contents address, contents addressinformation, and return address information upon one of the contentsbeing selected by the user of the mobile terminal; (b) connecting themobile terminal to the contents provider by using the contents address;(c) checking whether the connection established between the mobileterminal and the contents provider is interrupted while the selectedcontents being downloaded from the contents provider; (d) reconnectingthe mobile terminal to the contents provider by using the return addressinformation, if the connection is found interrupted in step (c); and (e)connecting to a web page corresponding to the contents addressinformation, after a completion of the downloading of the selectedcontents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other object and features of the present invention willbecome apparent from the following description of preferred embodimentsgiven in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 describes structures of a mobile terminal and a contents providerconnected to a wireless data communication network employing a method inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 charts a flowchart showing a method for connecting a mobileterminal to a wireless data network in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 depicts a flowchart showing a method for connecting a mobileterminal to a wireless data network in accordance with another preferredembodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 describes structures of a mobile terminal and a contents providerconnected to a wireless data communication network employing a method inaccordance with the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the mobileterminal 100 and the contents provider 300 are connected to each otherthrough the wireless data network 200. For the sake of simplicity, onlyone mobile terminal 100 and one contents provider 300 are illustrated inFIG. 1. However, in a real wireless communications network, more thanone mobile terminal may be connected to more than one contents provider.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the contents provider 300 includes a WAPserver 310 for providing a web page containing information on multimediacontents, a media server 320 for providing selected contents to themobile terminal. 100, and a database 330 for storing multimediacontents.

The mobile terminal 100 includes therein a WAP browser for displaying aweb page received from the WAP server 310 and a VOD player fordownloading and playing selected contents from the media server 320. TheWAP browser receives a web page including a menu for selecting contentsfrom the WAP server 310 and displays the received web page in a displaywindow of the mobile terminal 100. Further, the VOD player downloadscontents selected by a user through the web page and displays thedownloaded contents in the display window.

In the following, there will be described in detail a procedure wherebythe mobile terminal 100 is connected to the contents provider 300through the wireless data network 200.

First, the mobile terminal 100 requests a connection to the contentsprovider 300 through the wireless data network 200. Once a connection isestablished between the mobile terminal 100 and the contents provider300, the WAP server 310 transmits to the mobile terminal 100 a web pageincluding a menu to be used at the mobile terminal 100 for selecting oneof currently available contents. Thereafter, the WAP browser displaysthe transmitted web page in the display window of the mobile terminal100.

If a user of the mobile terminal 100 selects one of the contents listedin the menu of the web page, which is displayed in the display window ofthe mobile terminal, the WAP server 310 transmits a WML (wireless markuplanguage) script containing information on the selected contents to themobile terminal 100 through the wireless data network 200. The WMLscript includes, as its parameters, an ID of a provider of the selectedcontents, an ID of the selected contents, an IP address of the mediaserver 320 for providing the selected contents, an MO (mux option), anSO (service option), and other information on the selected contents(e.g., a title, author, and size of the contents). Further, the WMLscript may include additionally, return address information and/orcontents address information. Herein, the return address informationindicates an Internet address of the contents provider, which is used bythe mobile terminal 100 to reconnect itself to the contents provider 300when the connection established between the mobile terminal 100 and thecontents provider 300 is interrupted. Further, the contents addressinformation, which is predetermined by the WAP server 310, indicates alink to a web page including information relating to the selectedcontents.

Thereafter, the WAP browser of the mobile terminal 100 changes the MOand/or the SO setting included in the WML script, and provides thechanged MO and/or SO setting to the wireless data network 200. Thewireless data network 200 allocates a high-speed data transmissionchannel to the mobile terminal 100 in accordance with the changed MOand/or SO setting.

After the high-speed data transmission channel is established betweenthe mobile terminal 100 and the contents provider 300, the VOD player ofthe mobile terminal 100 is connected to the media server 320 by usingthe address of the selected contents included in the WML script. Then,the media server 320 searches for the selected contents in the database330. If the selected contents are found in the database 330, the mediaserver 320 starts to upload the selected contents to the mobile terminal100.

Meanwhile, in the wireless data network 200, the connection establishedbetween the mobile terminal 100 and the contents provider 300, i.e., themedia server 320, may be interrupted due to network congestion or themobile terminal 100 leaving the service coverage area. In this case, themobile terminal 100 may be reconnected to the contents provider 300 byusing the return address information included in the WML script. If aconnection between the mobile terminal 100 and the contents provider 300is established again, the WAP server 310 of the contents provider 300may provide a web page containing a menu to the mobile terminal 100.Thereafter, the user of the mobile terminal 100 can select contents tobe downloaded by using the menu in the web page.

In a similar manner, after the selected contents are completelydownloaded, the mobile terminal 100 may use the contents addressinformation to receive a web page including information relating to theselected contents.

FIG. 2 charts a flowchart showing a method for connecting a mobileterminal to a wireless data network in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention.

First, the mobile terminal 100 requests a connection to the contentsprovider 300 through the wireless data network 200. Once a connection isestablished between the mobile terminal 100 and the contents provider300, the WAP server 310 of the contents provider 300 transmits to themobile terminal 100 a web page, i.e., a main page, including a menulisting currently available contents. Thereafter, the WAP browserdisplays the transmitted web page in the display window of the mobileterminal 100 (S201).

If a user of the mobile terminal 100 selects one of the contents listedin the menu of the web page (S202), the WAP server 310 transmits a WML(wireless markup language) script containing information on the selectedcontents and return address information to the mobile terminal 100through the wireless data network 200 (S203).

Thereafter, the WAP browser of the mobile terminal 100 changes the MOand/or SO setting, included in the WML script, and provides the changedMO and/or SO setting to the wireless data network 200. The wireless datanetwork 200 allocates a high-speed data transmission channel to themobile terminal 100 in accordance with the changed MO and/or SO setting(S204).

After the high-speed data transmission channel is established betweenthe mobile terminal 100 and the contents provider 300, the VOD player ofthe mobile terminal 100 is connected to the media server 320 by usingthe address of the selected contents included in the WML script. Then,the media server 320 searches for the selected contents in the database330. If the selected contents are found in the database 330, the mobileterminal 100 starts to download the selected contents from the mediaserver 320 (S205).

While the selected contents are being downloaded, the VOD player checkswhether the connection established between the mobile terminal 100 andthe contents provider 300, i.e., the media server 320, is interrupteddue to network congestion and so on (S206 and S207). Further, the VODplayer checks whether the downloading of the selected contents iscompleted (S210). Although step S207 is to be executed sequentiallyafter step S206, step S207 may be performed periodically or at random,while step S206 is being performed.

If there is no interruption while the selected contents are beingdownloaded, the VOD player continuously downloads and plays the selectedcontents. After the downloading of the selected contents is completed,the mobile terminal 100 changes the MO and the SO setting, and providesthe changed MO and SO setting to the wireless data network 200, therebyallowing the high-speed data transmission channel allocated for themobile terminal 100 to be retracted. (S211).

However, if the connection established between the mobile terminal 100and the contents provider 300 is interrupted while the selected contentsare being downloaded, the mobile terminal 100 is reconnected to thecontents provider 300, i.e., the WAP server 310, by using the returnaddress information included in the WML script (S208). If a connectionbetween the mobile terminal 100 and the contents provider 300 isestablished again, the WAP server 310 of the contents provider 300provides a web page containing a menu for selecting contents to themobile terminal 100 (S209). Thereafter, the user of the mobile terminal100 can select contents to be downloaded by using the menu in the webpage.

FIG. 3 exhibits a flowchart showing a method for connecting a mobileterminal to a wireless data network in accordance with another preferredembodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 3, steps S301 to S311 are performed in the same way as describedabove with reference to steps S201 to S211 in FIG. 2 and, therefore, theexplanations thereof are omitted. However, in step S303, a WML scripttransmitted from the WAP server 310 to the mobile terminal 100 includesreturn address information and/or contents address information as wellas information on the selected contents.

If the downloading of the selected contents is completed without beinginterrupted (S310 and S311), the WAP browser of the mobile terminal 100checks whether the WML script transmitted from the WAP server 310includes contents address information (S312). If the contents addressinformation is found in the WML script, a web page corresponding to thecontents address information is displayed in the display window of themobile terminal 100 (S313). The web page corresponding to the contentsaddress information may contain information relating to the downloadedcontents. However, if the contents address information is not includedin the WML script, the WAP browser displays again the main page in thedisplay window of the mobile terminal 100 (S314).

In the preferred embodiments of the present invention, the returnaddress information and/or the contents address information is includedin the WML script transmitted from the WAP server 310 to the mobileterminal 100. However, the return address information and/or thecontents address information may be included in a header of contentsselected by a user of the mobile terminal 100.

While the invention has been shown and described with respect to thepreferred embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the artthat various changes and modifications may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the followingclaims.

1. A method for connecting a mobile terminal to a contents providerhaving a plurality of multimedia contents through a wireless datacommunication network, wherein the contents provider includes a mediaserver for providing the multimedia contents to the mobile terminal,comprising the steps of: (a) transmitting to the mobile terminal dataincluding an address of contents and return address information, uponone of contents listed in a web page provided by the contents providerbeing selected by a user of the mobile terminal, wherein the returnaddress information indicates an address of the contents provider; (b)connecting the mobile terminal to the media server by using the addressof the contents; (c) checking whether the connection established betweenthe mobile terminal and the media server is interrupted while the mobileterminal is downloading the selected contents from the media server; and(d) reconnecting the mobile terminal to the contents provider by usingthe return address information, if the connection is found interruptedin step (c).
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is a WML(wireless markup language) script.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein thereturn address information is included in a header of the selectedcontents transmitted from the media server to the mobile terminal.
 4. Amethod for connecting a mobile terminal to a contents provider having aplurality of multimedia contents through a wireless data communicationnetwork, wherein the contents provider includes a media server forproviding the multimedia contents to the mobile terminal, comprising thesteps of: (a) transmitting to the mobile terminal data including anaddress of contents, contents address information, and return addressinformation, upon one of contents listed in a web page provided by thecontents provider being selected by a user of the mobile terminal,wherein the contents address information has an address of a web pageincluding information relating to the selected contents and the returnaddress information has an address of the contents provider; (b)connecting the mobile terminal to the media server by using the addressof the contents; (c) checking whether the connection established betweenthe mobile terminal and the media server is interrupted while the mobileterminal is downloading the selected contents from the media server; and(d) reconnecting the mobile terminal to the contents provider by usingthe return address information, if the connection is found interruptedin step (c); and (e) connecting the mobile terminal to the web pagecorresponding to the contents address information, after a completion ofthe download of the selected contents.
 5. The method of claim 4, whereinthe data is a WML (wireless markup language) script.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the return address information is included in a headerof the selected contents transmitted from the media server to the mobileterminal.